FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy) contains information on over 2.8 million (public and private) active companies in the UK and Ireland. Historical information on companies no longer active is also available. There is up to 10 years worth of information from each company.
- Click on the Database Search on the dashboard of FindIt@Bham. In the box that appears type in Fame and click ‘Return’. A link to this database will appear below. Click on the link to access the database record. Then click on the link marked 'Resource available at:'
ACTIVITY 3A: Single Criterion Search
This activity is aimed at introducing you to Fame by searching for one company. It will provide an overview of some of the financial information available to you.
- In the top search box which says: “Find a company” enter ‘Tesco PLC’ and click 'Return'
- The nearest matches will be returned on the next screen. Click on the match which is for the company you require. Sometimes you will get a number of matches with the same name. To help choose the company you require use the data underneath each company name where you can see an overview of the company, including the latest accounts date, latest operating revenue (turnover) and number of employees.
- Click on Tesco Plc and the complete report should appear. Look at the report to see the type of information that it contains (Note: from the left-hand menu you can select various sections of either the complete or standard versions of the report). For example look for the following and note:
- What is the Profit (Loss) After Tax for 2009?
- What is the Current Ratio for 2021?
- What is the name of the current Company Secretary?
Tip: If you are unfamiliar with any of the terms in the report you may wish to refer to the financial terms dictionary at www.investopedia.com .
- Before moving onto Activity 3b, return to the Fame home page and remove the 'search step' (by clicking on the cross icon) :
ACTIVITY 3B: Multiple Criteria Searching
This activity will look at a multiple criteria search in order to search for urban and suburban passenger land transport companies with a number of employees greater than 1500. Note in this activity we will only consider two search criteria, but when searching in the future you can use as few or as many of the search criteria from the centre of the FAME homepage in order to create a group of companies specific to your needs.
- Click Activities and Industry from the homepage. In the right -hand box select Industry classifications . A box will appear on the left with the SIC codes. Scroll down to 49 Land transport and transport via pipelines. Click the small drop-down triangle to reveal 493 Other passenger land transport. Click the drop-down triangle next to this again to reveal 4931 Urban and suburban passenger land transport and tick the +. The selection will now transfer to the right-hand box. Click OK in the area to the right above the box. You will be taken back to the home page where you should see your criterion under the “Search Step” heading.
- In the left-hand box below the 'Search Step' Company and then select Number of Employees when it appears in the right-hand box. Select the following:
- Time period: last avail. year
- Search on Values. Enter 'Minimum' 1500
- Click the OK button. You will once more be taken back to the home page where you should see your criterion displayed.
- Under the Search Strategy heading you can see how many companies have been found (for each criterion and in total)
- How many companies match all of the criteria?
NOTE:
The Boolean logic combining the search criteria can be changed. Rather than the default of 1 AND 2 AND 3 (which means the companies returned will match all search criteria), the criteria can be changed to 1 OR 2 OR 3 (meaning the companies returned will match one or more of the search criteria, but not necessarily all).
- Click on the View Results button. The companies matching your search criteria are now displayed. From this screen you can view individual company reports by clicking on the name hyperlinks.
